Friday, 24 September 2010

ARC’s new report on the amphibians and reptiles of UK’s Overseas Territories:

The “UK Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies and Sovereign Base Areas”are a number of small, self-governing territories and dependencies around the world, plus two large military training areas on Cyprus, that remain under the jurisdiction of the UK or the British Crown. Occurring in a wide range of regions and climatic zones, these “territories”include many different habitat types and, between them, support a remarkable wealth of biodiversity that includes a high proportion of endemic species –in many ways they are the jewels in the crown for the ‘UK’s wildlife’ and provide a huge addition to the number of amphibian and reptiles that are directly part of the UK’s conservation responsibilities. Fifteen of these territories support a total of 132 indigenous species (19 amphibian and 113 reptile).

With a view to helping herpetofauna conservation work in the territories, ARC has recently produced a report with a complete species inventory and overview of conservation and research priorities for the herpetofauna in these territories and this is now available on our website. Visit our web-page to find out more about the UK Overseas Territories and their amphibians and reptiles.